Skills Changes
***UPDATES COMING SOON*** Skill changes DISCLAIMER: This page is relatively outdated, we will be reworking Skills into individual class pages with complete and detailed information soon! A key focus of Resurgence is to rebalance the entire charactersskills such that the majority of skills can be used around for end-game purposes. Decreasing the power disparity between build types is also a primary goal, notably the divide between casters and melee. Effort has been made to not completely sabotage the power of 'vanilla D2' god skills such as Blizzard, Blessed Hammer and Corpse Explosion. The goal of encouraging (classically under-represented) melee builds is not particularly noticeable when examining skill changes. Rather, the base damage for all weapons has been increased significantly (covered in the Item changes section further down this page) and new item properties (such as melee splash damage) have been created to increase the power of melee builds. Skill Mechanics More in depth skill mechanics for specific skills that aren't immediately obvious are listed here: Skill Mechanics Class skills The class summaries below outline the most important skill changes to each class and links to individual skills provide detailed information for each skill. Amazon * Added skills: ** Javelin and Spear Skill: Ground Slam, works like shockwave ** Passive and Magic Skill: Iron Reflexes, which boosts defense and faster hit recovery * Removed skills: Impale * Reworked skills: Evade and Avoid have been merged into 1 skill The Bow and Crossbows Skills ''tree received considerable improvements to the utility of most skills, such as a massive increase to the damage conversion factor of Magic Arrow, Fire Arrow and Cold Arrow. The 75% attack damage penalty to Strafe and Multishot has been removed. The late game elemental bow skills Immolation Arrow and Freezing Arrow have had substantial damage increases, including a cooldown removal for the former. The ''Javelin and Spear Skills ''tree has had significant rework in attempts to boost the power of melee Amazons. Ground Slam has replaced Impale and provides a mid-range AoE attack for mid-ranged spear wielding Amazons. The Poison based missile skills have also had their damages increased considerably. The ''Passive and Magic Skills tree has undergone minor changes, most notably the removal of any prerequisites associated with Dodge, Avoid and Evade. Assassin * Added skills: Arcane Strike * Removed skills: Cobra Strike * Majorly reworked skills: None Martial Arts * Dragon Claw – Increased damage. * Fists of Fire – Increased fire damage and attack rating bonus. * Cobra Strike – Increased attack rating bonus, * Claws of Thunder – Increased lightning damage and attack rating bonus. * Blades of Ice – Increased cold damage and attack rating bonus. * Phoenix Strike – Increased elemental damage and attack rating bonus. Shadow Disciplines * Claw Mastery – Increased damage, attack rating and critical strike bonuses. * Venom – Increased poison damage and duration per level. Traps * Fire Blast – Increased fire damage. * Blade Sentinel – Increased damage to 3/4 weapon damage. * Shock Web – Increased lightning damage. * Charged Bolt Sentry – Increased lightning damage. * Wake of Fire – Increased fire damage. * Blade Fury – Removed the 3/4 weapon damage penalty and increased damage. * Lightning Sentry – Decreased lightning damage. * Wake of Inferno – Increased fire damage. * Death Sentry – Decreased lightning damage and corpse explosion damage. * Blade Shield – Increased damage to 1/2 weapon damage. Barbarian * Added skills: Ethereal Throw * Removed skills: Double Swing * Majorly reworked skills: Battle Orders Warcries * Howl – Increased duration and flee distance. * Find Potion – Increased chance of successful skill use. * Shout – Decreased defense bonus. * Taunt – Increased effectiveness of enemy debuff. * Find Item – Increased chance of successful skill use. * Grim Ward – Removed terror effect, added effect of reducing nearby enemy physical resistances. * Battle Command – Decreased duration. Combat Masteries * All weapon masteries – Increased damage and attack rating bonuses. * Increased Stamina – Increased stamina bonus, * Increased Speed – Increased velocity bonus. Combat Skills * Bash – increased synergy bonus *Double Swing * Ethereal Throw – Throw skill that deals magic damage to multiple enemies. * Leap – Increased leap radius. * Double Throw – Increased damage. * Stun – Increased damage and effectiveness. * Whirlwind – Increased damage. Druid Elemental Skills * Firestorm – Increased fire damage and area of effect. * Molten Boulder – Increased fire and physical damage. * Arctic Blast – increased damage and decreased synergy bonus * Fissure – Increased fire damage. * Twister – Increased physical damage. * Tornado – Increased physical damage. * Hurricane – Increased cold damage, can be cast when shapeshifted. * Armageddon – Increased fire and physical damage. Shape Shifting * Werewolf – Increased attack speed and stamina bonus, now has fixed duration. * Lycanthropy – Added damage bonus, removed duration bonus. * Werebear - Increased damage and defense bonus, now has fixed duration. * Maul – Increased damage, attack rating bonus and stun duration. * Feral Rage – Increased damage and attack rating bonuses. * Fire Claws – Increased fire damage. * Shockwave – Added 4/3 weapon damage. Summoning * Poison Creeper – increased damage and minion life. * Oak Sage – Increased minion life. * All animal summons can be active simultaneously. * Summon Spirit Wolf – Increased damage, life and defense. * Summon Dire Wolf – Increased damage, life and defense. * Summon Bear – Increased damage, life and defense. * Carrion Vine – Increased life steal and minion life. * Heart of Wolverine – Increased damage and attack rating bonuses. * Spirit of Barbs – Increased thorns effect and minion life. Necromancer Summoning * Raise Skeleton – Increased damage, defense, and life, no longer requires a corpse. * Skeleton Mastery – Replaced with Minion Mastery. * Golem Mastery – Replaced with Minion Mastery. * Summon Resist – Replaced with Minion Mastery * Minion Mastery – Provides Damage, Resistances, Defense, Attack Rating, and Movement Speed to all summons. * Skeleton Mage – Replaced with Skeleton Archer. * Skeleton Archer – Summon a Skeleton Archer to fight for you, has a chance to fire larger numbers of arrows as it is leveled up. Like the reworked Raise Skeleton * Raise Zombie – Animates a slow moving, but very hard to kill zombie that deals physical damage and poisons enemies hit. * Convocation – Short range teleport that requires line-of-sight to the target location, and has a rather long cooldown. Useful for forcing your minions to stop goofing off. Poison and Bone * Teeth – Increased magic damage. * Bone Armor – Increased damage absorbed. * Poison Dagger – Increased poison damage and attack rating bonus. * Corpse Explosion – Reduced fire and physical damage. * Poison Explosion – Increased poison damage. * Bone Spear – Increased magic damage, can fire multiple projectiles based on points in Energy. * Bone Spirit – Increased magic damage. Curses * Lower Resistance - Increased effectiveness. * Hex - lowers monster magic resists * Confuse - removed. Paladin Defensive Auras * Defiance – Increased defense bonus. Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (physical damage reduction). * Cleansing – Added increased maximum poison resistance (by 1% for every hard point) to aura effect and passive increased maximum poison resistance (1% for every 2 hard points). * Meditation – Decreased mana recovery bonus, increased radius. * Thorns - Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (enemies take additional damage). * Prayer has been removed, replaced by Defensive Aura Mastery. * Vigor - Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (additional movement speed). * Meditation - Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (faster cast rate). * Defensive Aura Mastery - Confers bonuses to defensive auras. Offensive Auras * Might – Increased damage bonus. Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (1% crushing blow chance per point). * Holy Fire – Increased fire damage. * Thorns – Increased effectiveness. Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (reduced physical damage take (flat)). * Blessed Aim - removed and replaced with Offensive Aura Mastery. * Offensive Aura Mastery - Confers bonuses to offensive auras. * Concentration – Reduced damage bonus, added flat attack rating bonus. Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (1% deadly strike chance per point). * Holy Freeze – Increased cold damage. * Sanctuary – Increased magic damage, added effectiveness to demons. Provides a passive bonus based on hard points invested (magic resistance). * Fanaticism – Increased damage and attack rating bonuses. Combat Skills * Sacrifice – Increased damage and attack rating bonus, decreased damage to self. * Smite – Increased damage. * Holy Bolt – Increased damage and heal effect, now damages all enemy types. * Zeal – Increased damage and attack rating. * Charge – Increased damage. * Vengeance – Now a 2H weapon only skill that does damage in an AoE around the player. Damage dealt is based on weapon damage and radius increased with levels. * Blessed Hammer – Decreased magic damage. * Conversion – Removed and replaced with Consecration. * Consecration - AoE magic damage with a cast delay (similar to Blizzard). * Fist of the Heavens – Eliminated casting delay. Sorceress Cold Skills * Frozen Armor * Frigerate –Skill that adds cold damage and enemy defense reduction effect to weapons. * Frost Nova – Increased cold damage. * Shiver Armor – Increased defense bonus. * Chilling Armor – Increased defense bonus. * Blizzard – Decreased cold damage. Lightning Skills * Charged Bolt – Increased lightning damage. * Static Field – Decreased effectiveness. * Nova – Increased lighting damage. * Lightning – Decreased lightning damage. * Chain Lightning – Decreased lightning damage. * Energy Shield – Reduced damage reduction ceiling. Fire Skills * Warmth – Reduced mana recovery bonus. * Inferno – Increased fire damage. * Fireball – Decreased fire damage. * Fire Wall – Increased fire damage. * Meteor – Decreased fire damage. * Hydra – Increased fire damage. Item skills (Brief description plus link to item skills page)